The United Kingdom is an abolitionist country, having carried out its last executions in 1964.
In 1999, the British Home Secretary signed the 6th Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty, which formally ended capital punishment in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has also ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1976 and its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2) in 1999.
3 April 2018: Lord Jeremy Purvis of Tweed, Member of the UK House of Lords and of the All Party Parliamentary Group against the Death Penalty, attended a Parliamentary Consultation on Addressing Inequalities of the Criminal Justice System in New Delhi (India) and gave an intervention on the United Kingdom’s journey to the death penalty highlighting possible pathways for India towards abolition.
29 November 2017: PGA organized a side-event to its 39th Annual Forum in Milan (Italy), entitled “Moving Away from Capital Punishment in Asia”. The event focused on the issues and arguments particularly relevant to the abolitionist movement in Asian countries, and benefited from the experience of Baroness Vivien Stern, Co-Chair of the All-Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the Parliament of the United-Kingdom and PGA Member.
March 2016: A hearing of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Abolition of the Death Penalty (APPGADP) with PGA Member Mr. Mark Pritchard, MP (UK) and other British MPs, and the Australian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee was held and discussed the work of PGA.
19 February 2016: The Chair of PGA’s UK National Group, Mr. Mark Pritchard, MP called on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to press for Belarusian government on the abolition of the death penalty.